What do lungs weigh

This study was designed to address the issue and to determine a normal weight for the major organs in adult human females. A prospective study was undertaken of healthy females who had sudden, traumatic deaths at age 18 to 35 years. Cases were excluded if there was a history of medical illness including illicit drug use, prolonged medical treatment was performed, there was a prolonged period between the time of injury and death, body length and weight could not be accurately assessed, or if any illness or intoxication was identified after gross and microscopic analysis including evidence of systemic disease.

In , French researcher Grandmaison and co-authors published a paper in Forensic Science International analyzing organ weights from autopsies performed on whites between and Based on the results of this study, the following are mean organ weights and ranges for men and women:. To some extent, these values lack generalizability and can't automatically be applied to all people in a population. Even though humans change very slowly over time, the results of this study are already dated.

However, the sample size of this study is small and the results are somewhat dated. According to the formula, a woman who carries 40 pounds of total body fat would have breasts that weight about 1. Furthermore, histological changes in the composition of the breasts can sometimes affect breast weight.

It has to do with the density of the tissue —and fat is very low density. However, the effect of fibrocystic , adenomatous, or tumorigenic changes on breast weight is relative. In one person, that tumor may represent a third of her breast mass, and in another person, that tumor may represent less than one percent of her breast mass. Besides disease, another important factor that affects breast mass is diet and exercise.

When people lose weight, they tend to do so uniformly. For example, if a pear-shaped woman were to lose weight, she would still retain her pear shape but at a smaller mass. She would be proportionately smaller. A woman who loses weight will not experience a conspicuous decrease in breast size. Her breasts would be appropriate for her new weight and in proportion with the rest of her body— everything would just be smaller.

On a related note, as with the breasts, people lose a proportional amount of weight from the buttocks while dieting. Research shows that people who are taller, weigh more have a higher body mass index, or BMI , and have more lean body mass may have heavier organs. Of these factors, some research suggests that height may best correlate with most organ weights; taller people have organs that weigh more and are proportionately bigger.

Heart weight can be majorly affected by BMI, with obese people having heavier hearts. Interestingly, female thyroid weight has little to do with height, weight, and lean body mass. Instead, female thyroid weight may be most influenced by iodine intake. In areas where the vast majority of women consume enough iodine in their diets, thyroid weights typically fall within a uniform range for all women.

Age and sex also affect organ weight. On average, women tend to have lighter organs than men do. Furthermore, as with lean body mass, organ weights tend to decrease with age. Age-related decreases in organ weight are particularly noticeable in brain mass. Results from a study published in Der Pathologe— and based on more than autopsies—suggest that the average brain weight in men without brain disease is grams and the average brain weight in women without brain disease is grams.

The researchers also found that, on average, male brain weight decreases by 2. In other words, your brain gets lighter over time.

One physical parameter that exerts an unclear effect on organ weight is obesity. Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and rising rates are undermining the credibility of organ weight reference values.

Certain pathology sources express organ weights as a percentage of body weight — defining a direct and proportional relationship. The weight of the heart was not correlated to the height of the body in both males and females see Table 2. Other researchers [ 7 ] found that the weight of the heart was positively correlated to the weight in both males and females, while the weight of the heart was only positively correlated to the height of the body in males and not in female decedents in Thai population which is different from the findings of this study.

In the same vein, Hanzlick and Rydzewski [ 12 ] found that the weight of the heart in males is correlated to body weight and length, whereas the weight of the heart in females is correlated only to body weight but not correlated to body height. The weight of the spleen was found to be In this study, the weight of the spleen was not correlated to the weight and height of the spleen at Table 2.

Other authors have indicated that the spleen is positively correlated to body weight in males [ 7 ]. Similarly, Mathuramon et al. It is postulated that this may have been because the population that was studied is in a malaria endemic country and the size of the spleen could have been due to parasitic infections.

Parasitic infections have been observed to cause increase to the weight of the spleen [ 13 ]. The weight of the spleen was 0. The figures in this study are higher than the findings of Tanna et al. The weight of the liver was found to be The weight of the liver was positively correlated to body weight in both males and females at Table 2. The finding is similar to the findings in the Thai population [ 6 ]; however the weight of the liver did not correlate with the height of the decedents in the study see Table 2.

The percent body weight of the liver in males was 2. The findings are different from those of Standring [ 10 ] and Tanna et al. The weight of the lungs was found to be The percent body weight of the lungs in males was 0. In the female decedents, the left lung was 0. The findings in this study are different from other researchers [ 14 ]. The weight of the left lung was positively correlated to the weight and height of the body in males; however there was no correlation with either body weight or body height in the female decedents at Table 2.

The weight of the right lung was positively correlated to the weight of the body in females while there was no correlation with the height of the decedents.

In the male decedents, there was no correlation with the weight of the right lung with body weight and body height. Other studies which have shown that there is a positive correlation between body weights in males had the weight of the lungs combined to give total lung weight [ 6 , 7 , 15 ]. In this work, the left lung and right lung were analyzed independent of each other.

The weight of the kidneys was found to be The weight of the left kidney and right kidney represented 0. The left kidney represented 0. The findings are similar to findings by Tanna et al. Both the left and right kidney were positively correlated to body weight at Table 2 , while there was no correlation for both the left and right kidney with body height in the male decedents.

In the female decedents, the right kidney was positively correlated with body weight and height while the left kidney was not. This is different from the findings of Prakash et al. Other authors have shown that the combined weight of the kidneys is positively correlated to body weight and height in both male and female decedents [ 6 ]. The weight of the brain was The average weight of the brain in this study was positively correlated with the weight and height of the male decedents, while, in female decedents, the weight of the brain was positively correlated with the weight of the body but not the height of the body Table 2.

The percentage body weight of the liver in this population was greater than that of the Bhavnagar region of India [ 14 ]. A study by Mathuramon et al. Prakash et al. It should be noted that this study differs from other studies because the data was collected prospectively. By so doing the researchers were able to see the subjects which gave the researchers more information on the rejection and inclusion criteria, other studies that have used retrospective records to analyze the correlation of internal organ weights with body weight and height relied on information collected by others and may include organ weights from subjects that maybe otherwise would have been rejected.

The same pathologist and anatomist collected the data which means that the method of cutting and weighing the organs was consistent thereby reducing errors which would arise from having many people involved in collection of data. Organomegaly can be a sign of disease and pathologic abnormality, although standard tables defining organomegaly have yet to be established and universally accepted.

This study was designed to address the issue and to determine a normal weight for the major organs in adult human males. A prospective study of healthy men aged 18 to 35 years who died of sudden, traumatic deaths was undertaken.